Student Response Systems as a means to demonstrate content understanding

A text-dependent question forces students to go back to the text. It is a question they could not answer if they did not read, and even if they did read, students will still need to refer back to the text to answer the question.

Students cite specific evidence when offering an oral or written interpretation of a text. They use relevant evidence when supporting their own points in writing and speaking, making their reasoning clear to the reader or listener, and they constructively evaluate others’ use of evidence.

Have you thought about a Student Response System? A classroom response system (sometimes called a personal response system, student response system, or audience response system) is a set of hardware and software that facilitates teaching activities such as the following. A teacher poses a multiple-choice question to his or her students via an overhead or computer projector. Each student submits an answer to the question using a handheld transmitter (a “clicker”) that beams a radio-frequency signal to a receiver attached to the teacher’s computer. Software on the teacher’s computer collects the students’ answers and produces a bar chart showing how many students chose each of the answer choices. The teacher makes “on the fly” instructional choices in response to the bar chart by, for example, leading students in a discussion of the merits of each answer choice or asking students to discuss the question in small groups.

Brought Your Own Device ?? Do you have a clicker with you? Do you have a personal computing device with you? Student Response System: Socrative Web based: Android Device: FREE Socrative Student App “I”Device: FREE Student Clicker- Socrative App

Let’s Try This Out … Room ams17 StudentTeacher

ams17

You should be here … you will take a quiz

Student Response Considerations …. Know your purpose when designing questions … – Individual v. group activities – Formative v. summative assessments Grading – Does it count ??? – How does it count ??? Devices … BYOD, school cart, clickers($$$) Dry runs … practice with colleagues/students Learning curve … first year “investment”

Let’s do an Exit Activity Teacher …. Students … Ams17 Students … Problem: Do you think you could use this in your classroom?

How Text-Dependent, Discipline-Specific Questions Provide Students Access to Complex Text Required in the Common Core State Standards Related Resources Thomasina Piercy, Ph.D. … students must read texts closely and acquire knowledge. At each grade level, 80 to 90 percent of the Reading standards require text-dependent analysis. Questions that expect student responses to be text-dependent and discipline-specific require students to demonstrate that they understand the text details and can provide accurate evidence. Questions that are text-dependent can only be answered correctly by close reading of the text. The evidence … comes directly from the text and does not depend on additional information from other sources. Text-dependent questions assure knowledge from a specific text is clearly understood prior to leaping into synthesizing. This level of scrutiny of text increases expectations for accuracy for future thinking, which may include synthesizing, analyzing, and creating. It builds the critical foundation of knowledge needed for comprehending texts used in higher grade levels. Text-dependent questions are not the same as recall questions. They require understanding that extends beyond recalling basic facts. The use of inference is an important skill for close reading. The open-ended nature of some questions does not require students to demonstrate specific text-dependent knowledge. Providing a set of sequenced questions is supportive in guiding students’ focus through the text. This set of questions begins with a simple focus on word, details, and the logic presented in the author’s argument, then expands to the entire text. Such a set of questions guides students in making inferences based on the evidence in the text. After grounding their understanding of the specific text, students are better prepared to apply evaluation thinking and offer their sound opinions. Having responded to a set of text-dependent questions in all disciplines, students increase their ability to read with understanding. Gradually, as their reading skills and foundation of knowledge increase, they expand their capacity to read increasing levels of complex text with understanding.

Mass Common Core Standards for ELA and Literacy Writing: Text Types, Responding to Reading, and Research The Writing standards acknowledge the fact that whereas some writing skills, such as the ability to plan, revise, edit, and publish, are applicable to many types of writing, other skills are more properly defined in terms of specific writing types: arguments, informative/explanatory texts, and narratives. Standard 9 stresses the importance of the writing-reading connection by requiring students to draw upon and write about evidence from literary and informational texts. Because of the centrality of writing to most forms of inquiry, research standards are prominently included in this strand, though skills important to research are infused throughout the document.

Reading: Text Complexity and the Growth of Comprehension The Reading standards place equal emphasis on the sophistication of what students read and the skill with which they read. Standard 10 defines a grade-by-grade “staircase” of increasing text complexity that rises from beginning reading to the college and career readiness level. Whatever they are reading, students must also show a steadily growing ability to discern more from and make fuller use of text, including making an increasing number of connections among ideas and between texts; considering a wider range of textual evidence; and becoming more sensitive to inconsistencies, ambiguities, and poor reasoning in texts. Mass Common Core Standards for ELA and Literacy

Resources and Articles Clickers in the Large Classroom: Current Research and Best- Practice Tips Jane E. Caldwell Clickers in the Large Classroom: Current Research and Best- Practice Tips Space Race + google form + student created q’s + tech device = Great in-class review Benjamin Berte Space Race + google form + student created q’s + tech device = Great in-class review Benjamin Berte